From the DE-A-38 40 714, an ankle joint orthosis having a U-shaped supporting arm is known, whose legs converge underneath the footh into a web, reach past the ankles and, in their terminal region, are held together by means of a fastening strap. In this case the outer leg is carried upwardly laterally before its ankle and the inner leg, in comparison with the other leg, is carried upwardly before the Achilles tendon. Both legs are carried in the direction of the web up to a position before the heel and proceed upwardly in the direction of their ends in such a way that they rise upwardly next to the tibial edges approximately parallel to the same, while a fastening strap is fitted in the lower region of the legs which proceeds from the one leg via the instep obliquely upward to the other leg so as to be fixable upon the same, engages around the Achilles tendon above the ankles and terminates on the instep while crossing itself on the other leg in a retaining portion. With a thusly constructed ankle joint orthosis it is intended to prevent the twisting or distorting above all into the laterally-anterior direction, thus into apes equinus position. Since the U-shaped supporting arm of this ankle joint orthosis is, with its outer leg, carreid upward lateralyl in front of the ankle and, with its inner leg, in front of the Achilles heel and is held together by a web proceeding underneath the foot, the medial border of the metatarsus is not included so that the employment of this orthosis is restricted.
The DE-A-39 09 922 describes a foot fixation splint. This foot fixation splint serves particularly for the post-operative treatment of an injured ankle joint with a foot portion that engages around the foot, which is followed by a retaining portion provide d with closing bands, said retaining portion reaching upwardly as far as into the region of the calf. In this case the retaining portion is divided into two side portions which link up with the foot portion and are constructed in a shell-like fashion. Each of the regions of the side portion covering the ankle of the foot is provided with a window-like cutout. The region of the Achilles tendon on the foot portion and on the retaining portion is left uncovered in this case. The adjustable and fixatable tape-like closing bands are comprised of a non-extensible material, while one closing band on the foot portion is disposed in such a way that it, while engaging over the dorsum pedis, fixates the first metatarsal ray against supinatory ascendance. With such a foot fixation splint it is intended, on the one hand, to achieve a perfect immobilization of the foot to be treated and, on the other hand, to avoid the drawbacks of a plaster cast for, subsequent to injuries and operations on the external joint ligaments, the foot is frequently put in plaster for immobilization, in which case a post-operative treatment of surgical wounds is not possible owing to numerous serious disadvantages. In this foot fixation splint one sets out from a U-shaped joint collar or sleeve having a full-surface sole portion which covers the midfoot and forefoot up to the ball of the small toe, in which case, however, no adequate flexibility exists within the metatarsal region.
According to the U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,195, a device for splinting the ankle is known which brings about a rigid angular alignment of the ankle in relation to the leg as well as a compression so as to reduce swellings following a pulled tendon or a rupture of the tendon. This device is comprised of an elongated, substantially non-yielding flat member plate inclusive of a first and a second terminal flap which are interconnected by means of a center zone, said center zone being configured in such a way that, when the splint is applied, it lies underneath the arch of the foot, whereas the terminal flaps are disposed so as to proceed upwardly on both oppositely located sides of the ankle and, from the arch of the foot upward, at least beyond the lateral and central malleolus, so as to cover the ankle, in which case the rear borders of the terminal flaps are in a separate, but side-by-side position along the rear of the ankle and the front borders of the terminal flaps are in a separate, but side-by-side position along the front of the ankle. The center zone possesses a lesser width than the terminal flaps and is constituted of an arcuate depression along the central front border of the member plate and of a cutout along the central rear borders of the member plate, in which case the arcuate depression on the front border extends downwardly and rearwardly from the upper part of the surface of the dorsum pedis along the opposite sides of the ankle and thus lies below the arch of the foot in such a way that a dorsal flexural force is exerted against the ankle when the front borders of the terminal flaps are drawn toward each other. In addition, elastic means are provided which connect the first and the second terminal flap along their respective rear borders from their topmost ends up to a point located approximately next to their stitched cutouts, as well as rigid means, which interconnect the first and the second terminal flap detachably and adaptably along their respective side-by-side arranged lateral borders from the top ends of the same up to approximately the center of the dorsum pedis. Behind this the device comprises a U-shaped joint collar possessing a flexible web proceeding underneath the foot, outer and inner ankle splints which are interconnected via a heel web, depressions for accommodating the ankle, a rearward heel recess as well as a wide connecting strap between the splints and, furthermore, a longitudinally variable belt strap at the front within the top area, however, in this known device no provision is made for a construction of the sole portion of the device which comprises a splint connection web and a further highly flexible, articulatedly effective web which passes into the metatarsal portion with lateral flaps for the securing of belt, especially since, with the aid of this device, it is substantially intended to merely achieve a compression for the subsidence of swellings.
The present invention is based upon the technical problem of providing an ankle joint orthosis for an early functional treatment of fresh fibular ligament ruptures and of severe tarsal distorsions, with the aid of which a lateral and medial stabilization of the upper and lower ankle joint is achieved, whereby both inversion traumata as well as eversion traumata are prevented.
This technical problem is resolved by means of the features characterized in the claim 1.